Go Ego Go!? An Inside Story

Before you read this blog entry or maybe after, listen to The Inside Story to get a sense of what Ego as a tool can become. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqe0GhObL70&feature=youtu.be

All dressed up for the Queen 

It is a well known fact that people think that to become spiritual they have to get rid of their ego but is this really possible?  While we are alive in a body we HAVE an ego and that surely means we CAN'T BE the ego. We know we have a face and feet, ears and eyes and which are useful but WE AREN'T THEM; they may partially define us to ourselves and to those we meet but we really know that although we have a face, feet, ears, eyes and nose, we aren't them. We don't try to get rid of them do we? We have them for life and we take care of them; wearing shoes to protect our feet, covering our face in the wind and the rain, blowing our nose, cleaning our ears and generally keeping these useful things serviceable.  Our ego is what we face the world however once we get the idea that we aren't the ego, we have a chance to decide what to do with it. We don't have to let it decide what to do with us, we are the one in charge.  Just as we might dress in suitable clothes each day, in garden clothes for gardening, garden party clothes if we are invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party, we can choose to use our ego in the most suitable way for whoever we are being at any moment.
So if we really can choose what to do with the ego we have to begin to understand what we are. The wise have told us that we are pure spirit and if that is the case, the ego is just a part of the way we express that spirit.   We may not think we have a choice but if we know we aren't the ego, then we must be able to choose what to do with it.  We can be careful what we do with it, we can tend it, not allow it to be selfish, we can resist anger and temper extreme emotion, and if we find that steady place we become like the sovereign who plays her part with equilibrium.  I am confident that meditation helps us find that place of spirit by resting in stillness.    Then we get a chance to become the person we are really meant to be. And that person is not ruled by an untamed ego, it is ruled by a tender, loving Self.